Shifting Sands

Back on 4 May, 2006, a hearing was convened on Brendan Dassey’s confession.

Calumet County Investigator Mark Wiegert testified that he was alerted to Dassey’s involvement by relatives. The relatives told him the teen was losing weight, crying a lot, and had seen body parts in a bonfire.

In a great show of altruism, Wiegert said he and another investigator, Tom Fassbender, told Dassey he would feel better if he talked about it. “We knew he couldn’t get through this until he admitted it to somebody. It had been bothering him, obviously.”

Now, there is a shift. Special Prosecutor Ken Kratz claims that Dassey threatened a woman with a fate like Halbach’s. Kratz has filed that the statement took place about a week before his public relations stunt about the Dassey confession. He did not say how recently he obtained when the statement.

If the statement were collected by investigators in close proximity to the crime, the accuracy can be high. If the statement were collected only recently, then the statement is the result of altered memory. It is curious that this is such a new addition. It also odd that investigators have not named the relatives who gave up Brendan’s name.

Kratz wants this new statement admitted as evidence. It will be interesting to see when he became aware of it.

Investigators Fassbender and Wiegert would not comment whether this led them to Dassey when questioned by reporters. But, it was reporters who printed or broadcast the nearly year‑old testimony from Wiegert that Dassey relatives steered him to Brendan

Kratz also wants several statements and recordings admitted as evidence. A statement by Avery about the bonfire the night of 31 October, 2005, should be a non‑issue. As far as Avery, Dassey, and others, there is no secret. That is something that they all agree to. The others, so far, appear to be innocuous but a good prosecutor can make a prayer appear to be a curse.

The Defense wants to bar only two statements and recordings. One was made during a police interrogation after Dassey was represented, but his then attorney was not present. Investigators and attorney should have known better.

The other is a call from Brendan to his mother. This was made after police threatened him that they would call Dassey’s mother and tell her about his involvement with Halbach.

The trial legal consultant for WBAY‑TV said that she found a record of a telephone call from Avery to Dassey’s mother where Avery joked about Dassey seeing body parts in “a fire.” This could be used for emotional response, but why was it not used in the Avery trial?

So it looks like Special Prosecutor Kratz doesn’t want facts in the case. He wants to mislead the jury with emotional issues.